Get ready to pay double or even triple the price for fresh produce in the coming weeks after the worst freeze in 60 years damaged and wiped out entire crops in northern Mexico and the southwestern U.S.
The problem started less than a week ago, when our nation was focusing on the Superbowl and sheets of ice falling from Texas Stadium.
Farmers throughout northern Mexico and the Southwest experienced unprecedented crop losses. Now devastation that seemed so far away, is hitting us in the pocketbooks.
Society's Child
© Tara Todras-Whitehill/AP
Egyptians celebrate the end of Mubarak-era
Egyptians celebrate the end of Mubarak-era
Egypt rejoices as 18 days of mass protest end in revolution
Military pledges not to get in way of 'legitimate' government
When it finally came, the end was swift. After 18 days of mass protest, it took just over 30 seconds for Egypt's vice-president, Omar Suleiman, to announce that President Hosni Mubarak was standing down and handing power to the military.
"In the name of Allah the most gracious the most merciful," Suleiman read. "My fellow citizens, in the difficult circumstances our country is experiencing, President Muhammad Hosni Mubarak has decided to give up the office of the president of the republic and instructed the supreme council of the armed forces to manage the affairs of the country. May God guide our steps."
Moments later a deafening roar swept central Cairo. Protesters fell to their knees and prayed, wept and chanted. Hundreds of thousands of people packed into Tahrir Square, the centre of the demonstrations, waving flags, holding up hastily written signs declaring victory, and embracing soldiers.
© Amr Nabil/AP
An Egyptian reacts in the street after President Hosni Mubarak resigned and handed power to the military in Cairo, Egypt, on Friday, Feb. 11.
An Egyptian reacts in the street after President Hosni Mubarak resigned and handed power to the military in Cairo, Egypt, on Friday, Feb. 11.
From the oil-rich Gulf states in the east to Morocco in the west, regimes throughout the Middle East could not help but worry they could see upheavals similar to Egypt's.
If it could happen in 18 days in Egypt, where Mubarak's lock on power had appeared unshakable for nearly 30 years, could it happen anywhere? Only a month earlier, Tunisia's president was forced to step down in the face of protests.
"Egypt is going to have a big, big impact around the region," said Salman Sheik, director of The Brookings Doha Center in Qatar. "It is - as it always has been - a bellwether for what happens elsewhere. It's wrong, though, to get into a count about what country could be next. The real impact is already being seen in reforms that are coming from countries feeling the pressure."
Zaki Bani Rusheid, a leading Islamist figure in Jordan, described "a new dawn, new stage" emerging.
"This is a new future painted by bloody hands of Egyptians and Tunisians that knocked on the doors of freedom."
Leaders across the region have made a variety of concessions and also tightened security.
Anti-government protests have erupted in recent weeks with demonstrators complaining of corruption, lack of services and rising prices. More are being planned.
Mideast reactions to President Mubarak's resignation are pouring in
Dubai - Palestinians in Gaza let off fireworks, Tunisians drove through streets blaring car horns, and Lebanese fired guns in the air as people across the Mideast celebrated the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Friday.
Even in Israel, which had watched the Egyptian protesters' uprising against Mubarak with concern, a former Cabinet minister said Mubarak did the right thing.
"The street won. There was nothing that could be done. It's good that he did what he did," former Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who knew Mubarak well, told Israel TV's Channel 10.
Moments after Egypt Vice President Omar Suleiman made the announcement of Mubarak's resignation, fireworks lit up the sky over Beirut. Celebratory gunfire rang out in the Shiite-dominated areas in south Lebanon and in southern Beirut.
Dubai - Palestinians in Gaza let off fireworks, Tunisians drove through streets blaring car horns, and Lebanese fired guns in the air as people across the Mideast celebrated the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Friday.
Even in Israel, which had watched the Egyptian protesters' uprising against Mubarak with concern, a former Cabinet minister said Mubarak did the right thing.
"The street won. There was nothing that could be done. It's good that he did what he did," former Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who knew Mubarak well, told Israel TV's Channel 10.
Moments after Egypt Vice President Omar Suleiman made the announcement of Mubarak's resignation, fireworks lit up the sky over Beirut. Celebratory gunfire rang out in the Shiite-dominated areas in south Lebanon and in southern Beirut.
© courtesy of the city of Miami
This tombstone, left on Monument Island for weeks after a December art bash, is one of the pieces of evidence of the parties that are often held on the deserted Miami Beach island. The city is discussing ways to keep day-trippers from turning the island into a summer, weekend party pad.
This tombstone, left on Monument Island for weeks after a December art bash, is one of the pieces of evidence of the parties that are often held on the deserted Miami Beach island. The city is discussing ways to keep day-trippers from turning the island into a summer, weekend party pad.
When Miami-Dade voters agreed to spend $1 million to restore the Flagler Memorial on Monument Island, many hoped beautifying of the county's most revered historic structures would attract new visitors.
They probably didn't count on porn stars to be among them.
The lushly landscaped island between the Venetian and MacArthur causeways, which boasts a 110-foot obelisk honoring Florida pioneer Henry Flagler, is now the backdrop for an online porn video produced by RealityKing.com.
The film shows a redhead credited only as "Brooklyn" showing off what could loosely be described as her acting chops with fellow thespian "JMac."
Miami Beach officials - and at least one local historian - are not amused.
"This is not an uninhabited island miles off the coast," Assistant City Manager Hilda Fernandez said. "It's in the middle of a very busy bay. You can't go filming pornos in public parks."
On Feb. 5, RealityKing.com posted the adult movie, called Island Adventure, and credited the posting to "Captain Stabbin." The film runs about 50 minutes, including travel time to the island.
The Freudian implications of filming a sex scene in the shadow of a soaring obelisk is ripe for debate.
© unknown
Investigators said 61-year-old Birgilio Marin-Fuentes died afterwards from cardiac complications.
An officer who had been investigating a possible DUII near Portland Adventist Hospital was flagged down early Thursday morning by someone who had just witnessed the crash.
The witness told the officer a man had just crashed his car into a light pole in the hospital parking lot, according to Sgt. Pete Simpson.
The officer responded to the crash scene and found Marin-Fuentes unresponsive. Simpson said the driver had apparently suffered a medical condition not associated with the crash.
Adventist spokeswoman Judy Lindsay Leach said the charge nurse directed a paramedic to go immediately to the scene, then dispatched first responders.
The crash was approximately 100 yards from the hospital, but the victim could not be processed without following standard ambulance protocol.
© YouTube
A man hidden in this photo by a rock in the foreground is held down by one officer while another kicks him in the ribs.
A man hidden in this photo by a rock in the foreground is held down by one officer while another kicks him in the ribs.
B.C.'s Criminal Justice Branch said Friday it reviewed last spring's incident, including watching the video which was viewed by thousands of people on line, and concluded the officer was using legally permissible force to gain control of a dangerous and volatile situation.
"The visual images on the video showing the application of force are emotionally disturbing, however, in all the circumstances of the incident there is evidence that the officer was using force lawfully in order to gain control in an unstable and unsafe situation," said a statement from the Criminal Justice Branch.
The decision not to charge the officer is one of several incidents involving use of force allegations against Victoria police, including Const. George Chong, the brother of B.C. Liberal cabinet minister Ida Chong, who was charged with assault last July in a case in which a man was hurt.
Other incidents have included the tethering of a 15-year-old girl to a jail cell door for four hours, and a handcuffed man who was slammed to the jail floor from behind, causing brain damage.
Last fall, a police use-of-force report examining the brawling image of the Victoria Police Department and made 80 recommendations relating to use of force and jailhouse operations.
The Canadian-born father of missing Swiss twins wrote a letter to his estranged wife saying he had killed the little girls and intended to kill himself, Swiss police said Friday.
Matthias Kaspar Schepp wrote in a Feb. 3 letter from Italy that six-year-old Alessia and Livia were dead and he would now kill himself. His body was found later that day, police from the Swiss state of Vaud said.
Police say Schepp threw himself under a train in the southern Italian city of Cerignola. His letter did not say when or where he killed his children.
The girls were reported missing by their mother Jan. 30 when her husband didn't return them to her home in Saint-Sulpice, part of Lausanne, Switzerland.
"The father declared he had killed his two daughters and he was in Cerignola where he was going to kill himself," police spokesman Jean-Christophe Sauterel said.
Police said earlier that Schepp, 43, had used his work computer to trawl the Internet for information on firearms, poisons and suicide.
Roberto Mestichelli, a cousin of Irina Lucidi, the twins' mother, said the family was devastated.
"There was never a thread of hope. There is no hope" of finding the girls alive, he told The Associated Press.
Matthias Kaspar Schepp wrote in a Feb. 3 letter from Italy that six-year-old Alessia and Livia were dead and he would now kill himself. His body was found later that day, police from the Swiss state of Vaud said.
Police say Schepp threw himself under a train in the southern Italian city of Cerignola. His letter did not say when or where he killed his children.
The girls were reported missing by their mother Jan. 30 when her husband didn't return them to her home in Saint-Sulpice, part of Lausanne, Switzerland.
"The father declared he had killed his two daughters and he was in Cerignola where he was going to kill himself," police spokesman Jean-Christophe Sauterel said.
Police said earlier that Schepp, 43, had used his work computer to trawl the Internet for information on firearms, poisons and suicide.
Roberto Mestichelli, a cousin of Irina Lucidi, the twins' mother, said the family was devastated.
"There was never a thread of hope. There is no hope" of finding the girls alive, he told The Associated Press.
A gas pipeline explosion shook residents in eastern Ohio a day after a house explosion in neighboring Pennsylvania took the lives of five residents and destroyed several homes in Allentown.
The flames reportedly could be seen for miles around.
The flames reportedly could be seen for miles around.
© Khaled Elfiqi/EPA
Protesters celebrate inTahrir Liberation Square
Protesters celebrate in
The Egyptians are doing what is necessary to force change. The workers are striking. This is the key action necessary to bring down a government when you lack the guns and the media. No government can endure a protracted shutdown of the economy. It was through the economy and the currency that corporations and a certain criminal banking country took over control of so many governments in the first place. I believe it is a principal law of most countries that the government cannot be ruled by a foreign power. Trafficking with influence for gain is a form of treason. It is widespread now, throughout the western world and the reason the economies are crumbling, due to the activities of corporations and banks.
The predictable behavior of corporations is what led to the definition of fascism as being, 'government under corporate control'. In America, the single biggest evidence that this is so, came about when the highest court in the land ruled that it was legal for corporations to buy the government. A decade earlier they were the last gasp fixer, for a stolen election. Nothing has been the same since and quality of life is in the toilet, except for the few who are living it up at the expense of the many. When an economy shuts down, by the will of the people who turn the wheels, everything comes to a halt.
